Championship League Snooker 2011: All you need to know

Monday sees the Matchroom Championship League return for a fourth year as 25 players bid for a place in next season’s Premier League. Read on for the dates and format details…

When?

The dates in full are as follows:

Group 1 – Monday, January 3, and Tuesday, January 4
Group 2 – Wednesday, January 5 and Thursday, January 6
Group 3 – Monday, January 24 and Tuesday, January 25
Group 4 – Wednesday, January 26 and Thursday, January 27
Group 5 – Monday, February 28 and Tuesday, March 1
Group 6 – Wednesday, March 2 and Thursday, March 3
Group 7 – Monday, March 21 and Tuesday, March 22
Winners’ Group – Wednesday, March 23 and Thursday, March 24

Who?

The groups are as follows:

Group One

Ali Carter
Graeme Dott
John Higgins
Stephen Maguire
Shaun Murphy
Mark Selby
Mark Williams

Group Two

Four players from Group One and…

Jamie Cope
Neil Robertson
Ronnie O’Sullivan (replaced from Group Three by Stuart Bingham)

Group Three

Four players from Group Two and…

Mark King
Peter Ebdon
Marco Fu

Group Four

Four players from Group Three and…

Stephen Hendry
Mark Allen
Matthew Stevens

Group Five

Four players from Group Four and…

Ding Junhui
Liang Wenbo
Ricky Walden

Group Six

Four players from Group Five and…

TBC

Group Seven

Four players from Group Six and…

TBC

Format

As stated on the tournament’s official website:

Seven groups of seven players produce seven winners who play in one further group where the eventual winner plays in the 2011 Premier League Snooker.

In each group every player will play each other once in a best of 5 frame match (21 matches) after which the top four players will contest in the play offs – semi finals and final over the best of 5 frames.

Players will be awarded 1 point for each match won, then most frames won and the least frames lost in the league series will determine their position in the league table. Dead frames will not be played in either the league or knock-out stages.

The play-off winner will progress to the final league of the Championship League Snooker while the players coming sixth and seventh in the group will be relegated and will not feature in any further group matches.

Therefore after the group has played its total 24 matches (21 League matches plus play offs semi finals and final) three players will leave and be replaced by a further three players.

Prize money – group phase
£3,000 Winner of each final. £2,000 runner-up in final. £1,000 losing semi-finalists. £100 per frame won.

Prize money – winners group.
£10,000 overall champion. £5,000 overall runner-up. £3,000 losing semi-finalists. £300 per frame won.

Total prize fund – £200,500.

How to watch

While spectators will not be able to watch the event at the venue, as in previous years the the action will be streamed online by the following betting sites.